THE Prepping thread - a new beginning :)

greenbee · 14 March 2017 at 9:07PM

O isn't a 'common or garden' blood type Money. It's a very useful one. And if you're O negative you're a universal donor. (you can give O- blood to an O+ recipient, but the other way round isn't advised unless there is no choice)

The most useful blood group to BE is AB+ as that makes you a universal recipient.

I'd encourage ANYONE who can give blood to donate, but particularly those who are O group.

(actually, sometimes I feel that unless you have a medical reason not to donate, you shouldn't be able to receive... that's probably a bit cruel though... )

I recently went into hospital for a minor op and my mother asked my (god knows why... this is my 7th or 8th time so she must know the drill by now) whether I had to give blood in advance. Apparently that's what they did in the old days - took your blood in case you needed it back. I guess if you didn't need it, it then went into the general blood bank.

DigForVictory · 14 March 2017 at 9:18PM

Hear, hear on giving blood if at all possible.
Organs as well within reason. Altruistic donation doesn't have an age limit, but a health one. I'm very proud of this chap - he's a relative & a shining example.

Just look at someone on dialysis & imagine how different not having to spend hours every week plugged into a machine would feel.

jk0 · 14 March 2017 at 10:42PM

Did anyone hear the story, (must be 20 years ago now) that NHS hospitals were selling freely donated blood to private hospitals?

I'm afraid that put me off donating, though I now do support my local NHS hospital with cash rather than blood.

Nargleblast · 14 March 2017 at 10:43PM

I remember reading some statistics a few years back about blood groups. The numbers may have changed a bit by now, but then in the U.K. about 47% of people were group O (which actually is a zero, meaning no antibodies on the red blood cell walls to fight other blood types), 40% were group A, then the remaining 13% was split between AB, B and some very obscure rare types. The positive or negative bit relates to whether you have the Rhesus factor or not. If you are Rhesus negative then being given blood containing the Rhesus factor will cause a potentially life threatening reaction. AB positive types are able to receive all kinds of blood, A, B, AB, O, whether positive or negative. Anyone of any blood type can have O negative blood, which is why hospital blood banks always keep stocks of O negative to be issued immediately in emergency situations, such as major traumas or burst aneurysms or ulcers.

My mum, being some rare B type, needed transfusing after delivering me, so dad (type AB) became a blood donor to give something in return. He stopped donating after I think about a hundred donations.

greenbee · 14 March 2017 at 11:43PM

jk0 wrote: »

Did anyone hear the story, (must be 20 years ago now) that NHS hospitals were selling freely donated blood to private hospitals?

I'm afraid that put me off donating, though I now do support my local NHS hospital with cash rather than blood.

Well if the private hospitals need blood they can't just collect it themselves and I'd hope the blood service would charge them - the donations may be free but the blood service costs money to run. 2012 costs here. There may be more recent figures available but I don't have time to hunt them down. I'd assume they've gone up.

If you're fit and healthy, donate blood (and register as an organ donor). Blood isn't something that can be manufactured like equipment.

moneyistooshorttomention · 15 March 2017 at 8:20AM

It does seem very odd if hospitals don't collect a recipients blood in advance - in those cases where they know they are going to need it and with the fact they used to do so. It makes sense - particularly as we now know that some illness can be passed on in the blood (eg HIV).

I thought they were on the verge of being able to make artificial blood substitute now too? I may be mis-remembering on that - but I do keep a bit of an eye out for all those medical inventions I thought they'd already invented decades ago (but it turns out we're still waiting for them to invent in the first place).

[Deleted User] · 15 March 2017 at 9:27AM

The NHS is already stretched to breaking point both in terms of what the public 'expect' it to achieve and the amount of cash available for the hard working and dedicated people who work within it to be able to achieve it. In an ideal world there would be the facility to give your own blood to be stored and returned to the individual after the procedure, sadly NHS staff are off their feet even at the easiest of times and with A&E in crisis I think there just is no way personalised medicine of any kind COULD happen!

jk0 · 15 March 2017 at 9:27AM

greenbee wrote: »

Well if the private hospitals need blood they can't just collect it themselves

I believe they do in America, don't they, and pay donors for it too?

greenbee · 15 March 2017 at 9:55AM

jk0 wrote: »

I believe they do in America, don't they, and pay donors for it too?

They have an entirely different healthcare system. Ours is based on the NHS, and the blood service is managed and regulated - and centralised (as Mrs LW points out, they don't have blood collection/processing facilities at every hospital - that's part of how they have cut the costs AND keep the supply safe).

If private hospitals were able to collect separately and pay people, I wonder how many people would donate freely?

By having a single service for collecting, processing and managing blood stocks it ensures that that the appropriate blood products are available as quickly and efficiently as possible where needed and can deal with things like major RTAs and other large-scale events.

Please do rethink your stance on blood donations. You or a family member of a friend may need blood - or an organ - one day.

VJsmum · 15 March 2017 at 10:16AM

As a (former, but you have inspired me to go again) blood donor, I have no problem with the NHS selling surplus blood, which is life limited in any case - isn't it?

As for storing it to return to you -as said, i think its life limited and I have donated 50+ times (definitely more than an armful) and to date received none (touch wood etc)

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THE Prepping thread - a new beginning :)

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